The use is known of identity documents comprising a microcircuit and means enabling the microcircuit to communicate with a terminal, such as a system for inspecting identity documents.
The microcircuit is designed to transmit identity data memorized in the microcircuit in response to a request received from said inspection system.
Thus, when an individual presents such an identity document, the identity data are received by the terminal. These identity data can then be displayed so that an official assigned to the terminal verifies the correspondence between the displayed image (showing for example the face of the individual) and the individual present, or they can be used in order to be compared with biometric data obtained from the individual present (for example by taking a fingerprint).
The exchanges possibly implemented between such an identity document and an inspection system are described for example in the documents “BSI TR-03110 Technical Guideline Advanced Security Mechanisms for Machine Readable Travel Documents” produced by the German Federal Office for Information Security BSI (“Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik”).